James Bond Himeros #001

James Bond HImeros #001

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Rodney Barnes

Illustrated by Antonio Fuso

Coloured by Adriano Augusto

Lettered by Social Myth Studios

Himeros is the Greek God of sexual desire and one of the Erotes, the winged gods of love. When Aphrodite was born from the sea-foams she was greeted by the twin loves Eros and Himeros.

But when sexual desire goes too far, it takes the legendary super-spy James Bond to bring justice to the most vulnerable among us as he investigates the suspicious death of an accused sex trafficker – one whose ties run deep… and deadly.

I was slightly disappointed this wasn’t going to be James on a guy action, the name just threw me until we learned the origin of the name. So regardless of this I was really impressed with the whole story here. The opening is spectacular and it obviously is the reason that James becomes involved in the story and I do like that this appears to be a different James Bond from the last arc, the look is different and so’s the hair and it looks like they are trying to channel Daniel Craig. It does go with the whole idea that there are different Bonds over the years and not all of them fit the same type of mould.

I very much like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter establishes their baseline personalities. The pacing we see is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we are pulled into this with ease.

I like how we see this being structured and how we see the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored. Now not all of these avenues will be explored but regardless they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is superbly achieved. I really do like the way that the events unfold and how it feels like it’s a traditional Bond story.

Can I just say two things about the interiors here, one is that the way buildings and backgrounds are done is phenomenal to see and two, the overall style of the work of the people is so gosh darn good. The linework is excellent and as the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work is done is exceptionally rendered. We see how the composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a spectacular eye for how colour works.

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How we see the action start in earnest is really well achieved. Somehow, some way James manages to arrive right when he’s needed the most and it feels like this the luck of Bond’s when it comes to timing. Right place at the right time or is it the right place at the wrong time so that Bond has to prove he’s one of the good guys and save the girl to start off what promises to be one heck of a story arc. The is extremely well written with some strong, solid characterisation alongside some really good expressive interiors. This is more exciting to me than the film franchise and feels more like the novels and this is what I want to see.